India – With Valentine’s Day approaching, BigBasket teams up with Talented to deliver a witty reality check on modern dating and its red flags.

BigBasket’s Valentine’s Day campaign flips the script on modern dating, turning red flag frustrations into fast, green-flag deliveries. With a brutally honest take on romance, the campaign delivers a simple yet powerful message: timing is everything.

Conceptualised by Talented and executed by Potli Baba Mediahouse, the campaign features a series of films highlighting common dating frustrations, from ghosting and unmet expectations to catfishing and empty promises. Using humour and relatable scenarios, the campaign draws a parallel between modern dating struggles and the value of reliability and timing.

Speaking on the campaign, directors Mandakini and Bopanna said,  “The goal was simple: make people laugh while delivering a message that resonates. “The scripts gave us a wide canvas to play with. The red flag-green flag construct has a neat two-punch approach to it that we chose to elevate both in terms of visuals and humour. We wanted to treat the films like everyday tableaus of relationship issues. Hence the unobtrusive production design, framing and staccato rhythm.”

Raagaleena Sripada, marketing head for retail at BigBasket, shared, “Love shouldn’t be a waiting game. At BigBasket, we know that timing is everything—whether it’s a last-minute Valentine’s gift, a grocery run, or a comforting treat after a tough day. No one likes to wait, and they shouldn’t have to! This campaign reflects our commitment to speed and relevance, especially for a younger audience that expects both.”

Meanwhile, Aarushi Periwal, founding member and creative at Talented, said, “It’s really that simple – if they wanted to, they would. Our campaign taps into the frustration of waiting, and that’s where BigBasket comes in – showing up when it counts. We’re a generation that craves instant gratification; good thing BigBasket is into that too. With this campaign, we took the painfully real moments we all unfortunately relate to and turned them into something that shows the brand’s true colours – the greenest flag, indeed. “

“BigBasket has been a trusted grocery partner for decades, but now, the challenge was to position them as a 10-minute delivery app. Rather than just talking about speed, we found a deeper, more relatable insight—no one likes waiting. In a world full of breadcrumbing, BigBasket only bread-delivers,” Krisha Kakad, brand strategy at Talented, added.

India – Duolingo, in partnership with creative agency Talented, has unveiled a vibrant new campaign steeped in Tamil pop culture, marking the launch of its latest language-learning course, ‘Learn English from Tamil.’

The campaign introduces ‘English Vaathi Duo,’ inspired by ‘Vaathi,’ the Tamil word for teacher, and filled with the style, energy, and charm of Tamil cinema. By embodying Kollywood’s mass-entry flair and adopting a nickname that reflects Tamil Nadu’s love for creative monikers, the campaign blends Duolingo’s global appeal with local cultural pride.

Duolingo and Talented tapped into iconic pop culture moments, featuring vibrant dance sequences, catchy kuthu beats, and larger-than-life theatrics to breathe life into the campaign. The result is a seamless fusion of Duo’s playful, persistent charm with the dazzling spectacle of Tamil Nadu’s superstar-driven culture.

Karandeep Singh Kapany, regional marketing director at Duolingo India, said, “Localisation lies at the heart of our mission to make language learning accessible and relevant for everyone. With the ‘Learn English from Tamil’ course, we’re excited to offer Tamil speakers an opportunity to learn English in a way that feels culturally resonant and engaging. India’s linguistic diversity inspires us to create courses that reflect the unique needs of our users, and this launch is another step in our journey to empower learners across the country.” 

Abhishek and Nikhil Unni, brand strategy and creatives at Talented, also shared, “In Tamil Nadu, earning a moniker isn’t just about a name—it’s a rite of passage. It signifies a connection with the people, an acceptance into the cultural fabric of this vibrant state.” 

“With ‘English Vaathi Duo,’ we wanted to create a moniker that not only reflects Duo’s role as a teacher but also becomes a natural extension of Tamil Nadu’s pop culture landscape. This campaign was the result of a true meeting of minds between the brand, production, and agency teams, moving in lockstep to every stage with a shared excitement, trust, and unwavering commitment to the idea,” they added. 

The launch of the Tamil language learning course marks Duolingo’s fourth addition to its series of free, engaging, and culturally resonant English lessons taught in regional languages, following Hindi, Bengali, and Telugu.

“Duo, a mascot with a global mass appeal and an outrageous brand of humour, gave us the perfect canvas to reimagine his personality through the lens of Tamil cinema’s flair and energy. Exploring this superstar flavour for the campaign was not just a fun creative challenge but an incredibly rewarding experience that allowed us to celebrate the best of both worlds,” Abhishek Jayakrishnan and Naveen Cano, directors and co-founders at Out of Syllabus Productions, said. 

India – To spotlight its dedication to sustainability, Britannia has teamed up with creative agency Talented for a unique campaign where nature takes centre stage, shaping the brand’s outdoor advertising in a new way.

Titled ‘Nature Shapes Britannia,’ the out-of-home (OOH) campaign features billboards that physically conform to the shape of nearby trees, creating a powerful visual and metaphorical statement about how one of India’s largest organisations adapts to nature, rather than forcing nature to adapt to it.

Each of Britannia’s billboards is paired with a message highlighting the brand’s sustainability efforts across key areas, including plastic neutrality, waste management, circular economy, water stewardship, and energy management. The surrounding trees dictate the design and typography, causing the brand name to bend, curve, or compress based on their shape. 

For Britannia, this approach to the campaign reflects the flexible, adaptive mindset that large brands must adopt to drive real progress in sustainability.

Amit Doshi, chief marketing officer at Britannia, shared, “Britannia has been committed to being a sustainable organisation with a deep commitment towards its strategic ESG pillars. Through the years, we’ve learnt that sustainability needs a conscious, adaptive, flexible approach. This initiative is an embodiment of this flexible approach, with nature shaping ‘Britannia,’ quite literally. The team ensured even the material used for the hoardings was 100% cotton and biodegradable, ensuring we stay committed to the cause we are delivering.” 

The campaign’s creative agency, Talented, collaborated with multiple media partners to execute a unique strategy that defied the usual billboard selection process. Since media agencies don’t maintain data on billboards partially covered by trees in major Indian cities, the team also conducted on-ground surveys to handpick suitable locations.

Speaking on the campaign, Aabhaas Shreshtha, founding member and creative at Talented, explained, “Nature shapes Britannia, and so it was natural for us to want nature to shape its advertising as well. And so began our mission to find ‘rare trees with billboards right next to them.’ After a long and rigorous recce-ing with our media partners, we studied the contours of each tree, understood its growth and coverage, and designed around them. Large-scale sustainability charters are extremely consequential in the bigger picture but can feel distant. By partnering with nature around us to tell the story, Britannia is bridging that gap.” 

Sonia Lal, partner at Coral Media, added, “We were pleasantly surprised when we were briefed on the current campaign ask and honestly feel incredibly proud to support Britannia’s initiative, which is not just a wonderful way to show the impact of the brand’s sustainability initiatives but also a signal from one of the country’s long-standing advertisers to other advertisers and media owners to think differently. Not everything great must come at the cost of nature.” 

The ‘Nature Shapes Britannia’ OOH campaign launched across four cities—Hyderabad, Kolkata, Meerut, and Pune—in collaboration with various tree species, including Nag Kesar, Aam, Neem, and Peepal.

India – Following a series of cheeky Children’s Day billboards, BigBasket and Talented reunite for a heartwarming Christmas campaign that celebrates the magic of generosity and festive cheer.

Produced by Pu Productions, the heartfelt campaign film ‘Judy the Star’ tells the story of an elderly couple who accidentally spread Christmas cheer with the help of a broken phone, a wrong order, and a BigBasket delivery executive.

Commenting on the film, director Deepak Thomas said, “Most wrong orders end up in a long chat with customer service. But it was wonderful to paint a world where a broken phone results in twelve huge stars at your doorstep. It was a delight filming Judy and the BigBasket delivery executive finding their way around my favourite nooks, crannies, and bylanes of Bandra and lighting up the neighbourhood.”

Raagaleena Sripada, marketing head at Big Basket Retail, said, “This campaign was designed to showcase the joy and convenience of celebrating Christmas with us. Whether it’s decorating your home with trees and ornaments, indulging in cakes and cookies, or finding the perfect gifts like toys and electronics—everything you need for the season is delivered to your doorstep in just 10 minutes. By doing this, we also wanted to highlight the spirit of giving, the true essence of Christmas.” 

Leena Gupta and Aakash Desai from Talented added, “It is rare to see a truly Indian Christmas represented in advertising media. While the festival has wider themes of generosity and giving, the media portrayal has never moved beyond Santa Claus and reindeer. We made a very conscious decision to show an authentic X-mas via the lens of an old couple—another cohort that is treated like a monolith in advertising. All these representation decisions resulted in a heartwarming fictional story, not too far from our own non-fictional experience of Christmas.” 

India –  In celebration of Children’s Day, BigBasket, an India-based online grocery delivery platform, has partnered with advertising agency Talented for a campaign offering frustrated parents a quick toy delivery service to end their kids’ boredom.

The multi-city outdoor campaign is part of BigBasket’s push into the quick commerce race. Alongside its usual offerings—fruits, vegetables, pulses, and poultry—customers can now have a wide range of toys and games delivered to their doorstep in just 10 minutes.

BigBasket aims to assist frustrated parents dealing with bored children by providing a quick and easy way to entertain them when all other options have been exhausted.

Speaking on the campaign, Raagaleena Sripada, marketing head at Big Basket Retail, said, “So many aspects of parenting have evolved—from how we show our affection to kids to how we apologise to them. But one thing that hasn’t changed is the ease with which the kids get bored! You may try to entertain them with all kinds of traditional or known games, but you will still land with a bored kid and a frustrated parent! ”

“Our attempt with this campaign is to offer a quick rescue from such situations—by delivering a great set of toy brands such as Lego, Hotwheels, Hasbro, and many more in 10 minutes,” Sripada added. 

PG Aditiya, co-founder and CCO at Talented, further explained, “As a parent myself, I know that keeping children stimulated is a challenge, and the only ammo we have is dated methods we grew up with. So with this campaign, we showed tough love to parents and parent-adjunct figures who don’t want to own up to the fact that they’re objectively unentertaining. We banked on their deep-seated insecurity to pitch more child-friendly ways of spending time together using toys and games from BigBasket.”

The outdoor campaign is currently live in Bengaluru, Pune, and Hyderabad, with additional activations planned for the rest of the month.

India – As part of their ongoing platform for equal parenting, Britannia Milk Bikis has joined forces with Talented for their latest campaign, which empowers dads to use AI to generate heartfelt Tamil stories for children.

Conceptualised by Talented and brought to life by Web Dimension, ‘Adengappa Kadhaigal’ (loosely translated as “Wow! Stories”) is a GenAI-powered storytelling resource designed to help dads become better storytellers for their children. 

The campaign is inspired by the idea that “everything around you can tell a story,” and this unique platform utilises everyday household objects to enhance storytime experiences. By scanning any Britannia Milk Bikis pack, parents can generate stories in both English and Tamil. Each story includes prompts on how to use the scanned object as a prop to engage children in storytelling.

The campaign features a short film that showcases the new storytelling resource platform. It offers a fresh perspective on storytelling and redefines the role of dads as active caretakers.

Speaking on the initiative, Amit Doshi, CMO of Britannia Industries, said, “Britannia Milk Bikis has a deep-rooted relationship with the state of Tamil Nadu spanning decades. This campaign is a testament to our commitment to further the equal parenting discourse and play a part in enabling parents, aided by new-age technology. We’ve trained the AI model to recognise thousands of objects found in households to make stories more accessible.” 

Meanwhile, Samyu Murali, creative, and Balaji Padmanabhan, brand strategy at Talented, shared, “In a state where films are worshipped, they sometimes perpetuate a stereotypical image of moms—where dads are seen as the ‘fun’ parent and moms are relegated to the role of the disciplinarian. Advertising is trying to raise our children differently, starting with showing dads as equal parts storytellers.” 

Britannia Milk Bikis has long maintained a strong connection with Tamil Nadu. Campaigns such as “Britannia Milk Bikis Anaivarukkum,” which celebrates the region’s rich linguistic diversity and pride, and the “Britannia Milk Bikis Flashback Pack,” which honours the affectionate nicknames used in Tamil households, underscore this regional commitment.

Last year, the company also introduced its #GrowthNeedsBoth campaign, featuring Prithi Ashwin and her husband R. Ashwin, along with their two daughters. This campaign highlights the significance of collaborative parenting in fostering the holistic growth and development of a child.

Bangalore, India Independent creative agency Talented brought on ad leaders to join the team, ex SVP at Dentsu Webchutney, Priyanka Borah and ex managing partner at Dentsu Webchutney, Prashant Gopalakrishnan as Founding Partners to lead its business strategy.

In a statement, Prashant Gopalakrishnan, said, “We bought into Gautam & PG’s vision of building an agency centred around talent the moment we heard about it. My experience and my gut tells me that’s what clients expect from their creative agencies too: access to the best talent in the market.“

According to Gopalakrishnan, over the last few years, conversations in the industry have been circling around the looming irrelevance of agencies in the new marketing landscape. “All things considered, the agency experience itself is long overdue for a serious reimagination like Gautam often says. Talented is in many ways an experiment to bring back the love for the agency business, by trying to go about everything we do in a fresh way,” added Gopalakrishnan. 

Gopalakrishnan joined Webchutney in 2015 after stints at Leo Burnett, Contract & Capital. He was named Dentsu Webchutney’s first ever Managing Partner in 2020 under then Webchutney CEO & now Talented co-founder Gautam Reghunath. “Together at Webchutney, we achieved a lot of things we never even dreamed of accomplishing. Personally, I’ve been wanting a new challenge. That, plus the chance to build something again with people we love makes this opportunity even more exciting,” Gopalakrishnan added. 

About her new role, Priyanka Borah, says “Working with Gautam & PG at Webchutney was a rewarding experience. And joining them now as founding partner is as great a privilege, as it is a challenge. Prashant and I are here to ensure that the business itself becomes as successful as it can be. That means structuring ourselves internally to consistently deliver great work for clients. Simultaneously, we’ve got very clear ideas & share the same dream about the kind of company that we want to build together: one that stands for creativity, transparency and respect for talent. Stay true to those principles and I know the clients will follow.”

Borah joined Dentsu Webchutney in 2017 and was last leading the agency’s business team as Senior Vice President. During her five years there, she helped drive work for clients including Google, Uber, Airtel, ITC, YouTube amongst others. 

“In the agency business today, there are systemic barriers to a sustainable work experience for employees that need to be eradicated, so that’s an additional area of focus. We want to be an ambitious, world-class, creative company with a big heart. We want every member to be able to enjoy stimulating challenges rather than spend their times chasing deadlines and following up – the biggest bane of our younger colleagues joining advertising. There is no doubt this search for efficiency will have a positive rub-off on work and client relationships as well,” added Borah.

India – For women, it is a fact that there are structural and systemic barriers that get in the way of reaching senior leadership roles, especially for mothers, who have been on a maternity break. In this year’s celebration of Mothers’ Day, Indian jewelry brand Tanishq has launched a new campaign that aims to inspire moms to return to work.

The campaign was conceptualised by the new indie agency Talented, which was founded by former Webchutney CEO and CCO duo, Gautam Reghunath and PG Aditiya, and created in partnership with advertising film production Superfly Films. 

Titled ‘The Interview’, the film flips the narrative around the maternity penalty, offering a whole new perspective on what the maternity break actually means – an experience that can present a real competitive advantage at work, a bootcamp in leadership.

Ranjani Krishnaswamy, Tanishq’s general manager of marketing, shared that the woman of today is seeking to express herself with honesty and authenticity to confidently celebrate her realities, and she’s thriving in her vulnerability while rising in her power to change her world. 

“The brand believes these powerful stories build positive momentum in cultivating a world of equality and adding to her self growth. This film is an ode to women who challenge set narratives and inspire many others to follow the change,” said Krishnaswamy.

Meanwhile, Binaifer Dulani, Talented’s founding member and creative, noted that this is a long-overdue conversation in India, and Mother’s Day felt like a moment as good as any to further this narrative. 

“Studies reveal that it will take at least 136 years to close the global gender pay gap, and one of the biggest factors for this is the lack of representation of women in senior leadership. We need more workplaces to see beyond the dominant culture, value the incredible leadership transformation mothers undergo, and create equity for women so that they can make their comeback,” said Dulani.

Kopal Naithani, Superfly Films’ founder and director, said that a maternity break is not easy, it tests mothers at every level, and has a transformative effect, and there’s so much fear about what life will be like after, for working women. 

“I hope our character, Radhika inspires more mothers to add ‘Life Bootcamp’ to their own resumes and negotiate for better, more powerful roles when they make their comeback to work. At Superfly Films, furthering the arc on progressive womanhood is core to our mission, and we’re honoured to partner with Talented and Tanishq to put this discourse out there and inspire action,” added Naithani.

India Former Webchutney c-suite leaders – ex-CEO and ex-CCO Gautam Reghunath & PG Aditiya – has launched the new creative agency Talented. 

Reghunath & Aditiya were both homegrown leaders at dentsu webchutney, and together they’ve spent a combined 20 years at the agency. In their official launch release, the duo promises to build a creative agency that returns the advertising industry’s focus back to its talent. 

The duo said that they have radical ideas they believe can fundamentally alter the agency business – including employee ownership and stronger skin in the game relationships with clients. 

“We want to build a workplace where what every member of the leadership & its youngest colleagues think and say about the company, are the exact same. Where our actions and policies back up our words and press releases,” the duo said.

The duo emphasised, “When a client chooses us, we want them to know that we’re committed to putting the sharpest, most motivated talent in front of them. How we operate internally is going to play a huge role in making that happen. And at the end of all of this, we just want to do great advertising.”